To know a man's library is, in some measure, to know a man's mind.

— Geraldine Brooks

We look at the Ark of the Covenant and remember who we are.

— Geraldine Brooks

When a kingdom rests on it, I always expect difficulty. Then, if there is none, no blame. But if there is, one is prepared.

— Geraldine Brooks

When she thought of the letter bat, it was not of the thickness of lines or the exactitude of spaces. It was of mysteries: the number two, the dual; the house, the house of God on earth. 'They will build me a temple and I will dwell in them.' In them, not in it. He would dwell within her. She would be the house of God. The house of transcendence. Just a single, tiny letter, and in it, such a path to joy.

— Geraldine Brooks

When the madness came, he would be like a man staggering along the rim of the abyss – which was his rage – and when the edge gave way, or he missed his step, he might clutch at anyone within reach and drag that person with him over the precipice.

— Geraldine Brooks

Where was his empathy? Buried, I supposed, beneath his self-regard.

— Geraldine Brooks

Who is the brave man--he who feels no fear? If so, then bravery is but a polite term for a mind devoid of rationality and imagination.

— Geraldine Brooks

You can't write about the past and ignore religion. It was such a fundamental, mind-shaping, driving force for pre-modern societies. I'm very interested in what religion does to us - its capacity to create love and empathy or hatred and violence.

— Geraldine Brooks

You don't need a prophet to tell you to eat.

— Geraldine Brooks

You go on. You set one foot in front of the other, and if a thin voice cries out, somewhere behind you, you pretend not to hear, and keep going.

— Geraldine Brooks